


The Ladies and Their Girl

by hiddencait



Category: Firefly
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, F/M, Female Friendship, Female-Centric, Gen, Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-07
Updated: 2015-01-07
Packaged: 2018-03-01 22:25:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2789885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hiddencait/pseuds/hiddencait
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She's banged up some, but she'll fly true. There's no other Kaylee would trust to protect her family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Ladies and Their Girl

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tielan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/gifts).



> I hope you enjoy my dear!

            “Still say it’s an odd name for a Jaeger,” Jayne grumbled, striding away and leaving the trio of ladies rolling their eyes in his wake.

            “Cause we needed him to approve,” Kaylee giggled, glad the weapons specialist was out of the way for the moment. Putting the final touches on their girl was going to take focus and dedication; they didn’t need some man second-guessing their paint color choices. Bad enough some of the other mechanics and pilots were mouthing off about her name. What did they know about it, anyway? The Captain and Zoe were the ones who were going to fly her, and it was Wash who’d have to talk to them from the command center. If none of them were jawing, then there was nobody else who had a right to. She said as much, and Zoe nodded, her full lips turned in a slight smile as she looked up at the Jaeger she’d be piloting soon.

            Even Kaylee had to admit their girl was a little beat up if you looked at her; pulling her from Oblivion Bay had been a risk, but the Captain had insisted on her and no other. Once she’d gotten her hands on her girl’s innards to check her potential, Kaylee’d had to agree that Mal’s instincts had been dead on. It had taken work to get her ship-shape, but not near as much as some might have thought. Kaylee still thought the Mach II Fireflies had some of the strongest armor plating of any of the Jaegers to date.

            Badger could take his shaky ole’ Mach III with its creepy twins for pilots and talk all he wanted about how many kills they thought they’d manage; Kaylee’d trust her pilots’ lives to her girl and no other. If they killed some monsters along the way that would be a bonus, but Kaylee mostly wanted her family coming back home safe and sound.

            “Kaylee, dear, can you pass me the crimson?” Inara called down, settled serenely on the scaffolding over their girl’s heart, apparently unconcerned with just how out of place her delicate dress was in the Jaeger bay. _She’d_ been something to set the other mechanics gossiping, too; a pilot bringing a spouse was odd enough when that spouse wasn’t going to be piloting with him – bringing a Companion? That was a whole ‘nother level of complicated. It didn’t hurt that Zoe’d brought her Wash, as well. She and the Captain were the first piloting pair to both have non-pilot significant others; according to the rest of the ‘Dome, it just made them odder somehow. It didn’t help that no one was quite sure how to act around a woman who’d once been one of the higher paid courtesans serving the major political animals. That she’d chosen to follow a rag tag Captain to a Shatterdome was well… Well, it was perfectly Inara, Kaylee decided, especially when considering just how much more smoothly the bureaucracy of this place was flowing with Inara there to sooth egos and arguments alike. Not that most people realized what Inara was doing – they just saw the “whore.”

            “There are many things that they don’t see. It is their loss, not ours, and not our girl’s at all.” River appeared beside Kaylee, having finally emerged from the interior of the Jaeger where she’d been completing some final touches on the wiring. Unerringly, she handed Kaylee the paint can Inara had asked for, saving Kaylee from asking about the difference between ‘crimson,’ ‘sunset,’ and ‘sanguine’ again. Why they needed so many versions of plain ole red, Kaylee didn’t know, but she knew better than to say so and make Inara’s brow crinkle in disappointment. The former Companion was so pleased that she finally had something hands-on to do for their girl; Kaylee wasn’t going to ruin it for her. Kaylee settled the paint can in the little pulley they’d rigged up for just that purpose, and Inara smiled down her thanks at the two younger women, carefully pulling it to her and pouring just a dollop onto the large pallet she’d taken up with her.

            “I still don’t get how she’s painting all of that without ever getting any on her,” Kaylee said to River, voice deliberately loud enough to carry, earning her another smile and a soft chuckle from Inara this time.

            “Think they trained for it, at the Academy. The arts and calligraphy and all,” Zoe answered from her perch on the scaffolding next to the pair. She’d already done her part in checking and double checking their weaponry; their girl was not going to suffer a trigger malfunction like Osiris One had during the last attack. Not on Zoe’s watch; not when the Captain trusted her to take care of such things. Granted, it was her own skin she’d be saving too in this case, but Kaylee knew the other woman had a tendency to focus more on the fate of those she’d be protecting than her own safety. At least not until the battles had ended. Zoe tilted her head back, shading her eyes against the massive spotlights hung from the Shatterdome ceiling. “That’s looking right nice, ‘Nara. Almost done, I’d reckon.”

            “Just about,” Inara called back in agreement. “One more coat on her name, and then she’ll be ready to face the world and any enemy.” She turned away from the ladies and laid a hand softly against the Jaeger’s hull, careful not to smudge her work. “She’ll triumph. She will.”

            “Of course she will,” River confirmed, and though they wouldn’t admit it out loud and risk drawing attention to their youngest crew mate’s ability, Kaylee knew Inara and Zoe felt just as relieved by their secret psychic’s pronouncement.

            _Serenity_ would keep them all safe. There was no doubting that.  

 


End file.
